Rebecca Hopkins

Notes:

Per "1850 Census Sabine County, Texas with added Family Information and Corrections", Rebecca Hopkins Speights owned 20 slaves. She might instead have been born in North Carolina, or Virginia.

On April 27, 2013, a Historic Marker was dedicated at the Speights-Pratt Cemetery in Sabine County and reads "Rebecca Hopkins Speights (b. 1796) arrived in Sabine County in 1842 as a widow with four sons and a daughter*. She owned about 250 acres including this site, which became a cemetery with her burial in 1857. Sited near the Speights' home, the cemetery was actually on land granted to Mathew Arnold Parker, a Texas Revolutionary veteran and First Chief Justice (County Judge) of Sabine County. Joshua M. Hopkins Speights, buried here, was a State Legislator and County Judge. he and Hampton Pratt were among the first merchants in Hemphill. Of fifty-one marked graves, more than half bear the Speights surname. An unknown number of unmarked graves include Speights family slaves. The Speights-Pratt Cemetery Association manages this historic burial ground. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2010."

*Most family descendants instead have attributed four daugthers to Rebecca, the eldest Susan, dying as an infant. The other daughters generally are shown as Susan Green Speights Low, the wife of Dr. James Low; Amands Melvina Speights, who died at age 14; and Mary A. F. C. Speights Caraway, wife of Nathaniel Caraway. More work should be done to verify the exact family makeup, and ensure which children commonly attributed to William Speights and Rebecca Hopkins were actually born to them. It may also be possible that the historical marker is incorrect, though that seems less likely.

Rebecca married William Myrick Speights on 17 Dec 1817 in Virginia. William (son of William Speights and Ann Phelps) was born on 23 Jan 1787 in Virginia; died on 23 Oct 1842 in Mississippi. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Susan Speights was born on 3 Nov 1818; died on 28 Jul 1819.
2. Joshua Hopkins Speights was born on 7 Dec 1819 in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia; died on 25 Aug 1889 in Sabine County, Texas; was buried in Speights Cemetery, Sabine County, Texas.
3. Thomas Green Speights was born on 9 Oct 1822 in Mississippi; and died.
4. Susan A. Green Speights was born on 7 Aug 1826; and died.
5. Jonathan "Johnse" M. Hopkins Speights was born on 20 Jun 1828 in Mississippi; died on 2 Dec 1912 in Sabine County, Texas; was buried in Speights Cemetery, Sabine County, Texas.
6. Amanda Malvina Speights was born on 20 Jul 1832 in Mississippi; died on 16 Sep 1846 in Sabine County, Texas.
7. Mary A. F. C. Speights was born on 6 Dec 1835 in Mississippi; and died.
8. Green William Speights was born on 11 Jul 1839 in Mississippi; died on 23 Oct 1922 in Texas; was buried in Speights Cemetery, Sabine County, Texas.